The combined defaulted loan in the six private commercial banks rose alarmingly by 171 per cent to Tk 80,573 crore in September this year, compared to the same period in the past year, when the amount was more than Tk 29,645 crore, according to Bangladesh Bank (BB) data.
National Bank has the highest bad loans among the banks as of September this year, its defaulted loans stood at Tk 23,722 crore, which is 55.81 percent of its total disbursed loans.
The private lender is now suffering from a Tk 16,614 crore provision shortfall.The bank's bad loans were Tk 13,515 crore a year earlier, said the BB data.
After the regime change in early August BB, the central bank of the country restructured the board of eleven banks, including National Bank.
The bank is the country's first private sector commercial lender with a prosperous past. But it became a losing concern due to massive loan irregularities, lack of good governance and conflict among directors. During the 16-year tenure of the previous Awami League government, business conglomerate Sikder Group dominated the bank.
After the regime change following the fall of Awami League government and the takeover of the interim government, Abdul Awal Mintoo, a businessman and vice-chairman of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), became the bank's chairman.
Bad loans at Islami Bank Bangladesh (IBB) rose to Tk 17,752 crore by September of this year, up from Tk 7,084 crore at the same period last year. The bad loans figure stood at 11 percent of its total disbursed loans, according to data.
IBB was one of the worst victims of the controversial business conglomerate S Alam Group, which dominated the board of the largest Shariah-based bank until mid-August of this year.
The Chattogram-based conglomerate and its associated companies took out more than 50 percent of the lender's total Tk 163,863.78 crore loans, documents showed.
First Security Islami Bank, Union Bank and Global Islami Bank are three other banks that were under the grip of S Alam Group and saw their bad loans rise sharply in the last year.
In year-over-year calculations, defaulted loans at First Security Islami Bank rose by Tk 10,933 crore to Tk 12,948 crore; bad loans at Union Bank rose by Tk 11,374 crore to Tk 12,218 crore; and bad loans at Global Islami Bank rose by Tk 3,570.91 crore to Tk 3,816.91 crore, according to BB data.
Those three Shariah-based lenders were also freed from the grip of the S Alam Group as the central bank dissolved the board and formed a new one for each.
Officials of those lenders said that a majority of the disbursed loans taken out by the Chattogram-based business group and its associate companies are now becoming defaulted.
Defaulted loans at AB Bank rose by Tk 4,176 crore to Tk 10,116 crore by September of this year.
Central bank data showed that, except for two or three, bad loans of almost all private sector banks have increased in the last year.
